CAR VS. TRAIN PISA TO FLORENCE?

Chris,

I'm not sure I understand your question. Do you mean you want to stay some time (how long?) in Florence before moving on to Venice? Are you travelling with the rental car before you make the trip from Pisa to Venice? Are you planning to make any other stops between Florence and Venice? How many are in your travel group?

Point-to-Point train tickets aren't that expensive in Italy and if it's just a couple travelling they usually end up being cheaper than a rental car. If there's a larger group travelling you need to calculate a bit more carefully factoring in also parking fees, gas and tolls for the autostrada. In some cases it can end up being cheaper than a train depending how many of you are travelling.

However, in Florence a car is a liability. You cannot use it to drive around in the city. You pay a fortune for parking and if you don't pay attention to the signs you may end up paying an even larger fortune for traffic tickets when entering streets that are restricted for vehicular traffic. Some people ended up entering those restricted streets while trying to find the car rental where they wanted to return their rental car (or while trying to exit the city after picking up a car).

Take the train. You won't need a car in Florence, nor will you need one in Venice. The train is so very fast and efficient. If you do drive to Florence, stay away from the city center and the dreaded ZTL. There are many, many posts here about the ZTL in Florence. If you must drive to Florence, return your car at the airport and taxi into town. Seriously!!!

It's strongly recommended that you not try to drive a car into the historic center area of Florence. Doing so can easily cost you hundreds of dollars in fines for violating what they call the ZTL's.

I've recently checked the Florence forum at tripadvisor.com, where there are some DE's that are very knowledgeable about Florence, and they're giving the same advice we are:

Don't drive a car into the historic center area of Florence!

Chris are you traveling any place else besides Pisa to Florence and then on to Venice? You can very easily take the trains to each of these destinations. PtP tkts. are very reasonable. You do not want a car in Florence and you don't need a car in Venice.